Overview
On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners. Two were crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the third was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth (United Airlines Flight 93) was brought down in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back against the hijackers. The attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people and continue to shape our world.
Learn about the 9/11 attacks, their context and their legacy via the resources below.
#learn
Learn about 9/11
See below for a list of nonfiction resources about 9/11, the roots of the attacks and their continued impact. All books and documentaries are available in the library’s collection.
There are also a number of reliable sources online to learn about the history of 9/11. These include:
- Interactive web timelines from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum
- Flight 93 National Memorial (from the U.S. National Parks Service)
- The 9/11 Commission Report by the National Commission of Terrorist Attacks upon the United States
- The September 11 Digital Archive
- What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind: Grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning in the two decades since 9/11, by Jennifer Senior, was published in the September 2021 edition of The Atlantic Magazine and awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. A deeply moving story, Senior gently shares one family’s story of loss offering readers a complex examination of grief that is widely considered a masterpiece.
#programs
Programs at the Library
Station 60 Firehouse’s Annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony: The public is invited to honor the memory of those who perished on September 11, 2001, and those who have since died or are suffering from related illnesses this year on Wednesday, September 11th.
See full event details here.
To listen to an oral history from a Princeton resident that references 9/11, visit the Voices of Princeton website.
#educators
Resources for Educators
Teaching about 9/11 can be challenging, especially given the nature of the event and the proximity of the anniversary to the beginning of the school year. See the lesson plans below for potential starting points.
- Lesson plans from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum
- 9/11 Primer from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum
- Teach to Remember: A collection of teaching and virtual experience resources that tell the story of Flight 93 (for grades 6-12)
- Investigating Flight 93 includes a lesson plan and suite of educational materials (for grades 9-12)
- “Covering a Catastrophe: Comparing 9/11 Coverage” lesson plan from NewseumEd
- “9/11 and the Constitution” lLesson plan from the Center for Civic Education
- Resources about 9/11 from BrainPop
- “9/11 Anniversary Teaching Guide” from the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility
- Short oral histories recorded for the StoryCorps September 11th Initiative